One way for you to plan ahead for an older loved one’s health support is to shop around for the right long term care insurance plan. While private health insurance plans, Medicaid and Medicare may cover some related costs, these typically do not offer comprehensive coverage. Long-term care insurance supplements those programs so when you need to use it, you pay less out of pocket. AARP explains that long-term care is not considered a medical expense, which leads to coverage gaps or commonly called the doughnut hole.
Some of these additional insurance plans can also be quite pricey, however. There are many financial institutes across the country that offer these kind of programs – you should take time to research several companies and the kind of plans they offer to ensure you can comfortably pay the monthly premiums while still getting the coverage you want your loved one to have.
It’s also important to note that prices on these policies tend to increase as a person ages. If you want to invest in long-term health insurance, you shouldn’t wait until your loved one ages for several more years or develops a serious health concern. The younger and healthier someone is, the lower those premiums will be.
Shop Around
Theres absolutely no shortage of long term care insurers available to us. Starting with the earlier mentioned AARP, to lesser known insurers around the globe. After checking with the AALTCI, we found some interesting stats:
The average applicant for long term care insurance is 55-64, as stated before, the earlier the better.
Daily Benefit amounts range, but $99-$200 per day seems to be the average.
The highest percent claimant age group, is 80 yrs old and above.
Though these stats will vary, it still shows the importance of additional care in this age of healthier longer life. In future articles, Arista will be sharing what you should look for in home health care and hospice care.